The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-02-17
The Load the Farmer Carries.

The Load the Farmer Carries.
MR.. EDITOR.-1s it any wonder the
farmers of all nations, in all times,
have gone down under the weights
imposed upon them? Is it any won
der the American farmer begins to
stagger? And yet the blessed crea-
lures never did, and do not now, know
what ails them ; or rather suppose that
nothing is the matter, so long as when
they go TO town some rich banker con-
descends 10 stop and ask about the
health of their families and the condi-
ton of their crops, They do not I'M
derstand the relation between those
crops and the notes upon which the
banker grows rich, but remember with
ankfuiness how the banker over,
looked their coarse garments and
smiled graciously upon them. Such
notice pays for a large installment of
tOil, while it is the cheap return offer
ed by ideness and luxury to those
who Create everything.
| The farmer not only makes the
country, he makes cities, he makes
the world. He makes the sun, and all
the stars. Ii il were not for him they
well go out, and they would go out.
He not only has given perfume to the
jasmine and color to the roses; he is
the crt ator of all roses and gardens
and fields of grain. The banker aud
railroader only manipulate aud trans
fer and exchange " hat he creates, and
get rich, while he grows poor and
poorer, until he is broken down, over
hurdened apd crushed under the load
of parasites that swarm on him. So
went under the once industrious, and
} noble farmers of the Euphrates, of the
Nile aud Northern Africa, and of
Italy and Spain-and they drew down
in their ruin the many wonderful
cities that had forgotten their makers
} and creators in the days of their vani-
ty and blindness.
The farmer treads the wine press,
but does not drink the wine. He
| AIS oat'NStiJy ohN WIG N@Ai POSS
! and the laces, but daintier feet and
/ hands cannot spare him room upon
/ their rich, soft figures, or share their
: loveliuess with him. He builds rail
roads, colleges and churches, Euclid
} Avenues and Fifth Avenues He does
more, he maintains all the vermin and
, parasites that infest them, all the
) worthless, unworked classes, and the
courts and penltcntiaries that keep
} them in order. Cabinets and legisla'
t lures, mines and manufactures, would
: starve without his crops. Had he ne
Il further stent than to support himself
: he could do it as he once did, and be 8
4 gentleman again.
t But l have not much hope for him
confess tfat some signs are favorable
But most of the men who come to tn,
front i'll our agricultural schools, insti
tutes, and provision law making, ar,
not the best farmers of the country
They are men whose dispositions are
; distressed greatly by close application
to home work.
Again, the strikes in our cities ant
! mines are operating indirectly mos
severely upon the farmer more 8,
than upon the classes against wbicl
: they are directly aimed. Agricaltur
is not yet ready to sing the song o
eight hours, or ten hours, for a day
work. The idle world demands of tn
, farmer fourteen hours at least, or evic
ton, and his ears never hear a swell
of sympathy.
itigher wages mean more burdens
aud higher taxes for the agriculturist
They mean less crops, less work, les
profits and more mortgages on tn,
: land. They mean abandonment o
3 the old homestead, removals, tear
and eXtinguishment. Higher wages
aud less time for field hands, beside:
all thus, encourage idleness and un
steady and expensive habits among
those training for farm life.
BY almost universal consent the dis
sOlnte machinery of society and gov
erumenl ls running adversely To the
welfare OF labor on farms. and the la
hoFer is fast hasteDing the way toward
the doom of his forgotten predecess.
ors. ~